October 28, 2010

the days get shorter and cooler, the kids leave the house shortly before eight.it's getting harder to get up at 7am when the world is still blanketed in darkness, though we will have to start that early, school is not waiting for the kids.

never the less, the afternoons are lovely, i savor every moment with the warming sun and leafs falling around me!

out my kitchen window a lovely yellow against the sky

and then of course the bounty of fall, these roasted veggies will be turned into soup for dinnerand my friends leaving on monday left some fall asters back for me to enjoy, thank you a & a

October 27, 2010

my kids loved to be swaddled as newborns and the boys still love to be tucked under...of course they would never ask to be swaddled. now they call it mummified! and i love to do it for them, that's one of the reasons they are so attached to their quilts.it would not be quiet so easy to roll them into a down comforter. i feel a bit silly mummifying them, arms tucked tight to their bodies, the bottom part of the quilt folded up. then of course the feet need to be close and tight together too. finishing off with rolling them once or twice over.

so now here we go, my sister in law is expecting her first baby any day now. and it was for a while now my intention to make her a couple swaddling blankets and cloth wipes. i loved both of those items so much with my kids, and i feel strong about passing ideas and items which have been so useful to me, on to my loved friends.

this white cotton sheet got passed on to me from a friend, it's lovely, warm and a bit stretchy.the blue fabric was left from the boys curtain...

o yes and the brown/orange/pink ribbon has been in my stash for a couple years. it came in handy to decorate the plain white cloths.

a dozen washcloths were quickly zigzagged and everything will be passed within the next few days. i'm so happy to have taken the time to do it today.

October 26, 2010

a few days ago we visited grandma e, she had a bag of zippers ready for us. how wonderful! the bag has been sitting on in our family room (office, reading, work space.... i guess it could be called "studio" but it isn't really, we just spend a lot of time in this one room, working, creating and just plain being).

first the zippers had to be discovered, which was really just a screening look around the room by thea. our very keen little worker spotted it right away and went to work. all had to be dumped and researched...

as so m any times before, those zippers had to become necklaces and anything imaginable. we played those games with lots of other long things. for some reason all of our kids loved to hang things around their neck, be it climbing ropes, cables, wool and yes naomi loved the magnet-bands of cassette tapes! yes she loved to pull the brown band out and one time, she even took a stapler from my desk to do her "office work".....it's a few years back, i can laugh about it now!

October 25, 2010

with the longer nights and the fire in the fire place at our house i'm getting into crafting and giving gifts mood.of course that doesn't only mean that i'm giving, but it also entails, that i'm recieving...

i love to browse etsy for fun, to see what's going on at planet "craft and arts".this time it was not etsy but yozo that caught my eye. o ordered and was then eagerly waiting for the package to arrive.but of course it was shipped from china and this will take a while i thought.

but within 10 days i got my "gifts", how exciting getting two packages from so far away!

October 20, 2010

i posted a few times about our four apple trees. it was time yesterday to get all the apples, collect and bring them to the cider mill.all of us had fun collecting and we were glad that at the time out there it wasn't raining. the weather has been very flaky and i would not have chosen to do the work today, but we had to. the reason being, that we do not own a car and second, the cider mill of the nearby farmer is pressing on thursdays. i reserved a mobility car for the afternoon and we got to work.

dressed up in rain gear and warm hats we went out to the orchard.

these are boskoop, a tart kind. although it was really time for them to be harvested, and yes they were sweeter as i expected.

the other kind of apples are "suurgrauech" i could not find an english name for them... anyway it's an old variety and the apples would have been fine to store. but we decided because the tree didn't produce a lot this year, we would put them in the same batch as the boskoop and make cider.

:: i know this post should have been worked on some more. the plan was to go to the cider mill today an watch our apples being processed!instead we went for a hike, up to the castle kyburg, made a camp fire and grilled sausages for lunch!o well, i leave you with the unfinished post. we enjoyed the wonderful sunny autumn day. my friend is still sitting in the sun knitting...

and then we played a new game...our friends introduced us to fluxx the card game. and yes it is a game in "fluxx" and needs lots of "fluxxibility" of the players.there was of course more to my birthday, we had lunch at tibits. the kids enjoyed it as much as i did. the food was lovely and what good company i had. walking home along the bike path with surprises... there was the circus royal and we got to see the tigers! we collected hazelnuts and just enjoyed the autumn in winterthur, i really do not need anything more for my birthday.

October 19, 2010

one more day hiking in the ticino, this time it two valleys over the valle maggia.we drove all the way back to san carlo. originally we wanted to hike up to robiei and take the cable car down. luckily we quickly stopped by the base station of the cable car and discovered that it doesn't longer operate, "closed for the winter".anyway we hiked up and enjoyed some spectacular sights and vistas.

there were a few peaks right next to us, and it struck me once more how wonderful mountains are!

a very picturesque alpine summer "town" a few people were still up here, but no animals, they went down a couple of days earlier. it is 1380 müM (meters above sealevel)

we mostly hiked with thea in the "back pack", which works great for us. she is still light just about 23lbs. joel carries her and i carry the food, rain coats and of course the heavy camera...

we stayed at this brook for a long while, just watching, listening, eating lunch and playing with the water, the camera and watching thea climb all the big and small rocks.

i find it very interesting to see the inlaid rocks, the work of shifting mountains! there were many of those and each one looked different. nature is still thrilling and i love how we can enjoy and experience all of it.

October 18, 2010

it was a first for us to have the older three kids at camp for a week and so we took the opportunity and went into the southern canton ticino for a short holiday.we stayed at a hotel garni (b&b) and enjoyed the warmth and sunshine of autumn.

the first hike started out in intragna and led across the ponte romana. a wonderful start into the day. within 2hours of up hill hiking in the chestnut forest of the centovalli we arrived in rasa.!

a great find, and i still feel one of those prickly needles in my thumb...i don't know why i picked these chestnuts, still in "hull" up from the ground!

the by 11am the sun stood high and it was warm. looking back down the mountain into the valley. just stunning. it was already well worth the sweat of the past hour.

the view which presented itself at our lunch rest.after that we got the borrowed hiking map out of the back pack. it was printed in the year 1962, we knew that we could not trust the recorded paths anymore, but still figured we will be able to find our way from rasa to palagnedra. we did, but definitely not by regular rout. we searched for passable paths, and often could not find a difference of path and over grown mountain pastures. the fern grew as high as us and the houses built of rocks must have been abandoned for many centuries. anyway we made it down to the river by climbing and holding on to shrubs and some climbing. it was not planned that way and realized upon arriving at the bottom of the rock face, that we were still able to do things we would not have chosen to if known.

at the end waiting for the train. sitting in the sun, knitting and drinking. happily looking back on a wonderful day of adventures.

October 14, 2010

joel's youngest brother got married last saturday and we all enjoyed a great celebration. lots of laughter, lots of wishes, many good words and wonderful company. thank you a&r for having us at your memorable day!

and then there was that wonderful dessert buffet, it was blowing me away, here a few of the wonderful sweets...

any kind of fruit sorbet and creme vanilla you can imagine, with fresh berries and warm italian plums on the side!

i love vermicelli and in those backed and chocolate covered tart shells, just a dream!

a huge fruit platter, figs, pineapple, kiwi, peach o and so many more exotics!

what a happy and it also seems dessert loving couple, her dress was great, quiet simple and a natural rough silk.

oh yes! there was a astonishing cheese platter. rockfort, tripple creme camembert, hemp cheese, gruyere, lokal specialties from goat and sheep. o well there was really just a blast of flavors on this platter. i had to try and it blew me away!i know some people liked the white and dark chocolate moose the best, but this cheese platter was just not to be missed a definite high for me!

October 13, 2010

like her big siblings, she likes to draw and colour and "work" with writing tools.more and more now thea points out to naomi's pencil case and want's me to hand it to her... she doesn't yet care what colour she grabs. she cares for any tool which makes a mark when used on any kind of surface.that's fine with me, though non of the others have already been drawing on walls, tiles, carpet, chairs and tables as much as her. with naomi it was her body, and still is, though mostly her hands and nails now. with thea not so much soft and smooth surface but she seems to love the texture of a fabric or plastered wall.lets wait and see where we go from here!i will be buying a good rough surfaced drawing pad for her the next time i'm in town!

October 12, 2010

those few trees which we are happily taking the apples from have been a good thing for me.i miss the beauty of new england, i miss the intensity of the changing leafs in autumn. they change colours here too, but it's just not the north east of the us, where i really fell in love with the maple trees!so here a few more pics of what my autumn looks like in the lower lands of switzerland...

and then the more frequently appearing soup. in so many variations...it's what ever i find on the market, or find in the fridge. the produce i have not used up right away on the market day...it was such a very delicious vegetable creme soup, the kids loved it and could not get enough of it. what better can happen to me, i'm blessed. i do feel like cooking of this plentiful harvest, of what mother earth is giving us is the right thing to do.

October 11, 2010

last week i got a a call from a neighbor, she was in need of a few men with muscles, to build a fence for her donkey. of course, joel and his crew was on hand and happy to help.so there they went, jamming 12 big cedar posts into the soil and what ever else was needed to make the fence strong enough. the donkey and a hand full goats will be roaming the little pasture in the middle of our town.of course there will be donkey riding for all the "little" helpers and the lady also makes her own goat cheese, maybe we get to taste that too.

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welcome

i'm daniela mama to four and wife to joel. there is never a dull moment in our days. to keep track of our doings, i try to journal here. as i definitely wouldn't want to loos the many interesting moments to the unimaginable black hole. we live a colorful and ever changing life. in the best of moments - peace and creativity prevail. then there are the moments filled with lots of chaos and craziness. though we learn to love those too.